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Chemical Haiku: Elements' Qualities in a Few Syllables

Posted by timothy on from the atomically-pithy dept.

Frr pointed out this interesting approach to the periodic table: Haiku. This might even help you remember the elements.

2 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. A little chant... by Colz+Grigor · · Score: 5, Interesting
    My father, a chemical engineer, was forced to learn this chant in his days at RPI. He taught it to me during junior year chemistry in high school. It helped a lot in remembering valences. Heck, without it, I doubt I'd even remember what a valence was...

    HAgLiNaK HAgLiNaK
    CuBaCaFePbZnMg
    AlFeBiNiKr AlFeBiNiKr
    SiC SiC SiC

    Phoenetically:
    Haglinak, haglinak
    koobakafapibzinmig
    alfabiniker alfabiniker
    sick sick sick

    Yeah, so this isn't quite a haiku, but it got me by. Only other thing he taught me from his RPI days, the RPI Cheer:
    e to the x, dy/dx
    e to the x, dy
    cosine, secant, tangent, sine
    three point one four one five nine
    square root, cubed root, log of pi
    disintegrate 'em RPI!

    I guess what I really learned was that a bunch of nerds went to RPI.

    ::Colz Grigor

  2. If you want to get more technical... by chiasmus1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The real Japanese haikus can have 5,7,5 syllables, but it is not the syllables that are counted. The Japanese count the letters, which I might add can sometimes be only part of a syllable.
    ryo is a combination of ri and yo, but makes one syllable. It would be counted as two letters. On the other hand, n can be by itself. As in something like the Karate Kids Daniel-san. Sa and n are different letters and count as two, but they form a single syllable.